Economics Data

United States

Data Collectors/Providers

• Bureau of Labor Statistics (Data Page)
  Bureau of Labor Statistics (Surveys and Programs Page)
  The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an independent agency that collects and processes data in the field of labor economics. The programs and surveys listed below are just a few of those available.
  • National Longitudinal Surveys "are a set of surveys designed to gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of men and women."
  • Consumer Expenditure Survey " program consists of two surveysùthe quarterly Interview survey and the Diary surveyùthat provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics."
  • Current Employment Statistics "survey of payroll records covers over 300,000 businesses on a monthly basis and provides detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls for the Nation."
  • Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages "program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry."
  • Occupational Employment Statistics "program produces employment and wage estimates for over 700 occupations. These are estimates of the number of people employed in certain occupations, and estimates of the wages paid to them."
  • Local Area Unemployment Statistics "program produces monthly and annual employment, unemployment, and labor force data for Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence."
  • Mass Layoff Statistics "program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs."
• Bureau of Economic Analysis BEA produces economic accounts statistics that enable government and business decision-makers, researchers, and the American public to follow and understand the performance of the Nation's economy. To do this, BEA collects source data, conducts research and analysis, develops and implements estimation methodologies, and disseminates statistics to the public.
• National Bureau of Economic Research a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.

Housing and Real Estate

• House Price Index from the Office of Federal Housing Eneterprise Oversight who promotes housing and a strong economy by ensuring the safety and soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and fostering the vitality of the nation's housing finance system.
• National Association of Realtors Data and reports on home sales.
• Mortgage and Market Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association
• Office of Policy Development and Research of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is responsible for maintaining current information on housing needs, market conditions, and existing programs, as well as conducting research on priority housing and community development issues.
• National Association of Home Builders produces in-depth economic analyses of the home building industry based on private and government data.
• Monthly Interest Rate Survey from the Federal Housing Finance Board.

Surveys and Programs

• Current Population Survey "The CPS is the primary source of information on the labor force characteristics of the U.S. population. Estimates obtained from the CPS include employment, unemployment, earnings, hours of work, and other indicators. Supplemental questions to produce estimates on a variety of topics including school enrollment, income, previous work experience, health, employee benefits, and work schedules are also often added to the regular CPS questionnaire. "
  Data from the CPS is also available from ICPSR. You can make customized tables and graphs from the CPS data at Unicon's CPS on the Web.
• Survey of Income and Program Participation "The main objective of SIPP is to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the income and program participation of individuals and households in the United States, and about the principal determinants of income and program participation."
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics "begun in 1968, is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. individuals (men, women, and children) and the family units in which they reside. It emphasizes the dynamic aspects of economic and demographic behavior, but its content is broad, including sociological and psychological measures."
• Survey of Consumer Finances The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a triennial survey of the balance sheet, pension, income, and other demographic characteristics of U.S. families. The survey also gathers information on the use of financial institutions.
• TANF Typologies Database "The TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) Typologies Database contains welfare policy variables, state economic and demographic variables, and the six key outcomes variables that they are hypothesized to affect. The database categorizes state welfare policies into six typologies, which facilitate the clustering of states along selected policy dimensions and links between the policies and outcomes."
• Statistics on Banking From the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• The National Center for Charitable Statistics Collects and summarizes Internal Revenue Service information on charitable organizations

International

• World Development Indicators Online Contains statistical data for over 590 development indicators and time series data from 1960 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Data selection screens are intuitive and easy to use. Results can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change, and charted. Data can also be exported instandard formats like Excel.
• Global Development Finance Online Statistical data for the 135 countries that report public and publicly-guaranteed debt to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. The database covers external debt stocks and flows, major economic aggregates, and key debt ratios as well as average terms of new commitments, currency composition of long-term debt, debt restructuring, and scheduled debt service projections. Data selection screens are intuitive and easy to use. Results can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change, and charted. Data can also be exported in standard formats like Excel.
• United Nations Statistics Division collects data from many countries on many topics; a good source of international data.
• UN Comtrade DatabaseProduced by the statistics division of the UN, UNCOMTRADE is a repository of merchandise trade statistics reported by over 130 countries. Data is arranged according to five central variables: country, commodity category (referenced using both the ôHarmonized Systemö and the ôStandard International Trade Classificationö), trading partner country, year and trade flow (import, export or re-export). All values are converted into U.S. Dollars.
• The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 179 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000.
• Eurostat provides many tables of european Union data for free.
• SourceOECD The OECD's Online Library of Statistical Databases, Books and Periodicals.
• International Monetary Fund
• Balance of Payments: "Beginning in 1965 [to 1998], the series provides information on the balance of payments among countries and geographical regions of the world. Aggregate and detailed presentation show data for items such as investments, short- and long-term capital, reserves, and changes in reserves."
• Direction of Trade: "presents detailed information on imports and exports of various nations and geographical areas of the world, grouped into three main categories: industrial nations, developing nations, and USSR, Eastern Europe, etc., for the period 1948-1998."
• Government Finance Statistics : "Consists of annual time series data obtained by ICPSR from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The series presents combined statistics on detailed revenues and expenditures for all levels of government for 129 nations [for 1971 to 1998]."
• International Financial Statistics (ICPSR 1948-1991, these data are free to all SU users)
  International Financial Statistics (IFSOnline 1994-2003, this is a fee-based service, but you can get a trial subscription)
  Beginning in 1948, the series summarizes every country's balance of payments, with collateral data on its principal components such as trade and reserves, and data on the principal cause and effect elements, such as monetary expansion and contraction, government surpluses and deficits, production, prices, and interest rates.

Additional Resources

• Resources for Economists on the Internet has lists of web sites that provide data on many topics.
• Other Data Collections List of data collections from NBER
• Economagic: Economic Time Series Page A comprehensive site of free, easily available economic time series data useful for economic research, in particular economic forecasting. The majority of the data is USA data. The core data sets involve US macroeconomic data (that is, for the whole US), but the bulk of the data is employment data by local area -- state, county, MSA, and many cities and towns.